250 CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 
tions are nowhere seen above ground; we find only 
what belongs unquestionably to volcanoes.” 
We would fain connect these mountain-peaks with” 
a submerged continent, a continent that extended over 
the vast space now occupied by the Caribbean Sea, 
and into the Atlantic far over toward the coast of 
Africa. We are ready to believe that the “lost At- 
lantis” of the ancients is not a myth, that it is nota 
“fabled island,” but had a real existence, and that the 
land discovered by those Tyrian navigators who sailed 
beyond the Pillars of Hercules and were driven by a 
storm many days westward, was part of a continent 
now beneath the waves — the eastern shore of a region 
which these mountains once traversed ;' for — 
“Who knows the spot where Atlantis sank ? 
Myths of a lovely drowned continent 
Homeless drift over waters blank ; 
What if these reefs were her monument ? 
Isthmus and cavernous cape may be 
Her mountain summits escaped from the sea.” 
The early geological history of the area occupied 
‘by the Caribbean Sea, its coasts and its islands, has 
excited the attention of many eminent scientific men, 
and much light has been afforded by the study of the 
land and marine faunas and of the geological forma- 
tion of the islands and adjacent coasts. The con- 
clusions reached by the later scientists are, that the 
West Indian islands present the remains of a sunken 
continent. Says that eminent naturalist, Wallace: 
“The West Indian islands have been long isolated 
and have varied much in extent. Originally, they 
probably formed part of Central America, and may 
have been united with Yucatan and Honduras in one 
